Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The latesttale in Spider-Man's never-ending struggle demonstrates just how powerful the economy is as both an instigator of public discontent and as a motivation for supervillains. If we think about it, many supervillains form because they are either down on their luck or run into some sort of trouble with their finances. As Ezra Klein noted, the Sandman turned to a life of crime in Spider-Man 3 because he was unable to afford medical treatment for his daughter. Most ordinary thugs you see in comics (and a fairly large amount of brand-name villains too) commit crimes that are financially motivated. Even the Joker, depending on your interpretation has origins stemming from financial peril. A struggling comedian trying to support his family, he pulls a heist at a chemical plant to make some cash and...well, you know the rest.

Obviously the state of the economy is important here. We've discussed before how it's possible that an economic recession could lead to more crime. This applies mostly to your orindary street-thug types (remember this guy?), but if left unchecked we know that these low-tier criminals could escalate to be formidable opponents.

But now to top it off, we have a new way that the economy can affect the state of superheroics: public opinion.

Dexter Bennett, former construction tycoon turned newspaper owner, has just engineered the first official federal government bailout of the newspaper industry (specifically, his own newspaper The DB). If you think that this is ludicrous, recall that back in September President Obama hinted at doing something like this. To be fair, Obama was mainly looking at proposals to give extra tax breaks to struggling newspapers if they agreed to restructure as nonprofits. Waid doesn't go into much detail in Amazing Spider-Man, but it looks like what's happening is that the feds are just throwing money at The DB with no expectation of restructuring, public ownership, or...anything. This sort of makes you think about what the federal government is getting out of keeping The DB alive. Or how exactly Bennett pulled it off in the first place.

However, this is all besides the point. Far more interesting is the unintended result of this "Bennett Bailout." Remember the classic Spidey villain, Electro? The one who can...electro-ize stuff? The one we haven't seen in a while? I wonder how he can the federal government's actions to his advantage:

You see, NYC isn't exactly happy with the Bennett Bailout. Citizens feel that their taxpayers' money is being wasted to support greedy, capitalist fat cats sitting in their mansions as they suck the life out of the middle class. If anyone has read the supervillain instruction manual, they know that praying on the fears of the public is by far the easiest way to attack a superhero. And what do people fear more than anything else in the world right now? It's not a crazy former villain who shoots electricity out of his eyes. It's Wall Street.

Interestingly, this is precisely what J. Jonah Jameson has been trying to accomplish for years. By writing scathing critiques of the webcrawler in the former Daily Bugle, he was trying to instill a permanent sense of fear. He argued that Spider-Man increased crime. He argued that Spider-Man was a danger to society. He tried everything and only marginally impacted the public's perception of Spider-Man.

In one day, Electro managed to change all of that. He managed to completely change his own reputation from being a terrorist to being a servant of the labor force. He also managed to persuade the public that Spider-Man was part of the capitalist conspiracy. AND he did it without any intention of involving Spider-Man at all! Turns out Electro had lost the fortune he had in various investments when the economy went sour. He's out primarily for personal gain.

What's the difference between Electro and Jameson? Jameson never thought to use the great instigator of fear. The...economy!

The lesson here is that if superheroes want to be thorough, they better start getting their PhDs and involving themselves in public policy.

12 comments:

Can I make a suggestion? I think youve got something good here. But what if you happen to added a couple links to a page that backs up what youre saying? Or perhaps you could possibly give us something to take a look at, something that might join what youre saying to one thing tangible? Just a suggestion. Anyway, in my language, there will not be much good supply like this.

Your weblog is fine. I simply need to comment on the design. Its too loud. Its doing method too much and it takes away from what youve got to say --which I feel is admittedly important. I dont know if you happen to didnt suppose that your phrases may hold everyones attention, however you have been wrong. Anyway, in my language, there usually are not much good source like this.

Utterly understand what your stance in this matter. Though I'd disagree on some of the finer details, I feel you probably did an awesome job explaining it. Sure beats having to analysis it on my own. Thanks. Anyway, in my language, there aren't a lot good supply like this.

Took bp claims process me time to read all of the feedback, but I bp claims process really loved the article. It proved to bp claims process be very helpful to me and I bp claims process am sure to all the commenters right here! It's bp claims process always good when you can not solely be informed, but in bp claims process addition engaged! I'm positive you had pleasure penning this article. bp claims process Anyway, in my language, there aren't a lot good supply like this.

Find elsewhere how with the aim of perform a reverse phone lookup cellular phone lookup before a telephone search before yet a phone number search search with the purpose of unearth elsewhere who is down to facilitate ego with the purpose of has been calling you this intact occasion ok.

Swap cell phone lookup webpages akin to this individual spirit give you all kinds of mobile phone search essentials so to facilitate you know how to ultimately uncover away their name, address, where they survive, reverse phone lookup their current age plus a lot new. So what time you necessitate with the intention of use a cellular phone number search in our day, merely perform in no doubt with the intention of spend this obliging tool that unearth away on or after home each kinds of annul cell phone lookup information down that anyone nowadays.

I enjoy this nice invert cellular phone search or cellular phone lookup or else phone number lookup spot. I be able to ascertain a lot of reverse phone lookup bits and pieces on the subject matter of change telephone lookup here now at what time I checkered not on home this guide here.

Expend this telephone lookup place to facilitate find elsewhere cell phone lookup is trailing this mysterious phone number you hold questions a propos. Plus today you be capable of squander the similar cellular phone search so what time to obtain those answers finished in favor of you in the present day quickly as well as easily.